Christina of Denmark

Christina of Denmark (November 1521-10 December 1590) was Duchess consort of Milan from 4 May 1534 to 24 October 1535 with Francesco II Sforza and Duchess consort of Upper Lorraine from 14 June 1544 to 12 June 1545 with Francis I of Lorraine.

Biography
Christina was born in Nyborg, Denmark in November 1521, the daughter of King Christian II of Denmark and Isabella of Austria. In 1523, nobles forced her father to abdicate, and the family went into exile in Zeeland in the Habsburg Netherlands. She was raised by her grandaunt and aunt, Archduchess Margaret of Austria and Mary of Austria, the Dutch regents. In 1527, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey sought for her to marry King Henry VIII's illegitimate son Henry FitzRoy, but Christina's uncle, Emperor Charles V, did not want his niece marrying a bastard. In 1531, however, Emperor Charles approved of her marriage to Francesco II Sforza. They were married from 1534 to 1535, with Francesco dying after just a year. She returned to the Low Countries, and King Henry himself sought to marry Christina after the death of Queen Jane Seymour, but ambassador John Hutton failed to convince Christina to marry him. She instead married Duke Francis I of Lorraine, who also died after a year of marriage. She served as regent for her son Charles III of Lorraine, but she was ousted from power in 1552, when King Henry II of France's forces conquered Nancy during the Italian War of 1551-59 and banished all Imperial officials from Lorraine. She refused to remarry, and instead negotiated an end to the Italian War. From 1561 to 1590, she was a claimant to the thrones of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, and she was the sovereign lady of Tortona from 1578 to 1584. She died in Tortona, Duchy of Milan in 1590 at the age of 69.